


Moment(s)

by Tormented_Gale



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-03-14
Packaged: 2018-03-17 08:46:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3522947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tormented_Gale/pseuds/Tormented_Gale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the smallest details he is determined to not forget.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moment(s)

Here, now, sitting on a little park bench, an ice cream cone in his hand, is a moment he wants to remember forever. He wants it to be clear, precise, like a painting done by an expert hand. The vibrant colors, the sticky treat slowly running down his fingers, the smell of freshly blooming flowers, and the shouts of children running about. He leans forward and breathes it all in, experiences life as he never has before, and might never again.

Someone clears their throat, and he finds his cheeks reddening at being caught up in his own world. He looks at the person standing with their own cone (also melting) and a smile tugs on his lips as he notes those blue eyes crinkling with hidden happiness at the corners. Maybe this moment, he thinks, as he rises and takes the offered hand in his free one. This is a moment too that he wants to hold close to his chest.

"What are you thinking about?"

Sync turns his head and smirks. “Oh nothing.”

"I can’t figure out if you’re kidding or not." Not quite exasperation. Fond bemusement, maybe.

"I’m not thinking about how the ice cream is definitely all over my arm and is leaving a trail on the sidewalk."

They share a private smile, full of meaning and promise and joy, and he feels those fingers squeeze his hand a little, just enough of a reminder. Sync never thought he would have so many moments that he wants to hold onto so dearly.

"Guy… if you could only remember one moment… what would you hold onto?"

The question comes from nowhere, but Guy only hesitates a moment in confusion. He tilts his head and considers as they continue lazily down the sidewalk, other people passing them by on either side.

"Only one, huh?" he asks, and Sync nods, and he isn’t sure why this is so important (he guesses Guy isn’t sure either) but it is and Guy bites his lip in thought. "I guess… the first time you said ‘I love you’ to me."

Sync blinks. He barely remembers that moment - there have been many ‘I love you’s as time has gone on - but tries to picture it in the same clarity he wants to remember his own. It’s a good memory, though not perhaps the one Sync would have chosen.

"What about you?"

That too seems like an almost insurmountable question. Sync stares down at his ice cream, licking some of the stickiness away, as he tries to think of a suitable answer. Guy hums softly at his side, ice cream held high even though it is dripping a mile a minute.

He almost answers ‘any moment with you’, but that’s not entirely true. There are moments he does not want to remember: the fights, the arguments, the crying and apologizing and healing. Those he does not want to recall, not with the sort of clarity he wishes for in this. So he discards that, and considers dozens of others - the moment Guy asked him for coffee, the moment he asked Guy if he could kiss him, the moment they shared in bed the first time suspended in harmony and passion, the moment not long ago sitting on a bench waiting for Guy to return. None of them seem appropriate anymore.

"I don’t know," he finally answers, and isn’t sure if Guy will be upset with such a response. Guy chuckles at his side, releases his hand, and instead puts a warm arm around his shoulders.

"Fair enough," Guy says. He kisses the top of Sync’s head. "You haven’t experienced a lot yet either. You should do that first before you decide on one."

Sync smiles at that and nods, leaning a little awkwardly into the shoulder while their ice cream leaves a trail for anyone to follow. There are too many and yet not enough to choose from, not a single moment, anyway.

It isn’t until later, as time passes, that he finds himself considering it again. He wonders why he forgot in the first place. At the time, asking Guy that question, it had seemed so important to have an answer. He had wanted to tell Guy all the moments he held so close to his heart, the secrets that meant the world to him, but even that seemed insufficient.

Now, lying on his back, his breath rattling in his throat and his lungs desperately trying to expand, he has all the time in the world and seconds left before he leaves it. His eyes no longer make out their room, their house, their little haven, though he knows the dresser is at the foot of their bed, the window is streaming sunlight on his skin, the nightstand is covered in knickknacks that drive him crazy but Guy loves… he knows this room as well as he knows that he loves Guy.

The hand running through his hair is gentle, kind, treating him as a fragile piece of cracked pottery doomed to shatter despite the care. He opens blank eyes and moves dry lips, but nothing comes out. This is not the moment he wants to remember, but it seems to take all of his concentration, all of his memory, despite his desperate attempts to remember the happiest moments of his life. He feels fingertips circling the ring on his finger, and he tries to smile as the clear memory of that day pierces through the haze that has enveloped him so securely.

"Sync," he hears his name whispered in his ear, and he chuckles and coughs and hears the rattling over the word. He leans as much as he can towards that breath gently fluttering his hair and brushing his ear, and he sighs as warm lips press to his forehead.

"Guy," he whispers back, tongue as dry as sandpaper and hands trembling at his sides, no longer able to feel anything. "Guy…”

"You asked me once what moment I would choose to remember," Guy murmurs, and his voice is cracked and breaking and so close to tears, "but you never answered it yourself. Is it okay to change my answer now?"

Sync barely nods his head, and those lips return to kiss his forehead again.

"I would pick every moment with you, because there’s nothing I could ever forget."

That’s cheating, he thinks, and a smile creases Sync’s mouth. He breathes again, the rattling louder and harder to shake, roaring through his ears with every pump of his heart. A hand holds his, and he squeezes as best he can, and he tries to chuckle at the silliness of doubting his own answer when Guy’s is the same.

Every moment with you is a moment I will remember forever.

He lets his eyes close. This too is a moment he will keep close to his stilling heart.


End file.
